Posted in: Dungeons & Dragons, Games, Review, Toys | Tagged: DnD, dungeons & dragons, pathfinder, Review, rpg, Tabletop, Wardlings, WizKids

Pre-Painted Companion Fun as We Review WizKids' Wardlings

When WizKids recently sent us a series of figures to review, we were pretty stoked to find the complete set of Wardlings in the mix. If you haven't seen these figures, they're worth paying attention to for a couple of reasons beyond being pre-painted. As we review them, we're going to take a look at each one and what they bring to the table whether you're playing Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, or any other tabletop RPG.

As we look at the Boy Cleric and Winged Snake below, the basic tone for each of these is to give you a specific character type along with a companion pet if you so desire to have one. You don't necessarily need to play the character this way because you managed to get a figure that matches what you're doing, it's simply an option that you can utilize or save for another time when you have a different character you'd like to have a pet for.

Each character and their creatures are super detailed, as you can see from this Girl Ranger and her Lynx. Everything on the armor and the hooded tunic is designed so that the character's personality shines through the appearance and the choices they made to the wardrobe. The Lynx is made to look a little more ferocious than normal so that if they are used as a companion they have a bit of an edge to them, and if they're an enemy they look a little more fierce and a force to be reconned with.

The figures are also designed so that if you get a wild hair about their design and you decide you wish to paint them in a new way, they're not hard to change the style of. Looking over the Girl Rogue and her Badger, it wouldn't take a lot of work to change the coloring of the outfit or even the hair of this figure to appear how you want them to.

The Boy Fighter and his Battle Dog below are also good examples of this as it wouldn't take a ton of work to redesign how that armor looked and the specific colors associated with how they are presented. WizKids went out of their way to give you some figures that had personality if you were lacking the skills to paint, but also gave creative people the options to play with what they have if they feel the design wasn't what they wanted.

I also enjoyed how this set focused on diversity as far as human characters go. The Boy Druid with the Tree Companion beside him shows off the way the designs can be funky and a little playful with the class you choose and don't necessarily all need to be dark and brooding in your mind and on the table. But the company also went out of their way to make three of these characters men and three of them women so you had options. Unlike some companies that make mostly male-designed figures and you have to change up int he way they're created to pretend they're women, the women characters here are front-and-center in some classic roles.

It was also cool to see that they didn't just make all white characters. The Druid has a touch of grey as if they're older or aged, the Ranger has a tan or brown complexion, and as you can see from the Girl Wizard with her Genie below, the Wizard is a black woman. That's an awesome design that unless you specifically wanted to create that, a lot of players might night have thought to take their character in that direction. We could have grand discussions about breaking stereotypes in tabletop play, but the idea that the company made these characters this way is awesome because it presents a new way to approach how create characters and tell stories. I absolutely want to play as this wizard in a future game!

Overall, the collection of Wardlings from WizKids is pretty well done. They all go for $8 a pop, which is pretty reasonable considering you're getting two pre-painted figures in one. And as mentioned before, they could give you great ideas of different characters to build that you wouldn't have considered before. We're very happy with the way these were designed and came out, and would like to see more added to this collection down the road.

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